Performance of Waste Lubrication Oil Burner for Process Heating in Small to Medium Enterprises

Abstract

Waste oil is a major output from lubrication process and there is a need to establish safe mechanisms of disposal of this hazardous waste to protect the environment from pollution. This research, therefore, focuses on supplementing energy demand through waste oil combustion as well as minimizing waste oil disposal problems. An oil red burner was designed, fabricated and its performance analyzed. The main aim of this burner was to burn waste lubrication oil (WLO), with less emissions, to generate process heat for utilization in Small to Medium Enterprises (SMEs) as well as o er its safer disposal solution. Air and fuel ow regulators were incorporated to control reactants' ow during combustion and investigate reactants ow regulation in uence on emission levels as well as optimize combustion and heat generation. Results from this study showed that there was a reduction in carbon monoxide (CO) and unburnt hydrocarbons (UHC) concentration with increasing excess air. CO reduction was attributed to the fact that excess air enhanced formation of more oxygen radicals during chain initiation process which enabled conversion of more CO formed during chain branching process to CO . UHC emission reduction was as a result of more oxygen oxidizing fuel and therefore more fuel converted to combustion by-products of CO 2 and H 2 2 O. The low emissions concentration, high calori c value of WLO and high

ame temperatures achieved con rmed that combustion of WLO is able to supplement energy demand and at the same time o er safe disposal solution. This research work can be applied in industrial boilers, heating process water in restau- rants and hotels as well as heating in workshops. It also avails data and standards that can be utilized successfully in the design of real systems.